Coronavirus update, Jan. 9: Post-Christmas numbers continue rise in Stanislaus County
Latest facts on COVID-19 in Modesto area
Stanislaus County continued to report grim coronavirus numbers, these coming two weeks after Christmas Day.
On Friday, the county reported 16 more deaths tied to COVID-19, bringing to 665 the number of people who have died in the county since its first fatality in April.
Since Dec. 31, there have been 49 deaths reported by the county.
The county also reported Friday 1,118 more case against 8,841 tests for a positivity rate of 12.64%.
The deaths and infection counts Friday were from a two-day total, the county reported.
Meanwhile, according to the state coronavirus dashboard, the county’s single-day positivity rate on Thursday reached 27.46%, the fifth time in the last eight days it’s hovered over 21%. It’s rolling 14-day rate is 16.4% compared to the state’s 13.3%.
The state’s dashboard is updated daily at 11 a.m., and falls a day behind the county’s, which is updated with totals each day in the late afternoon.
The county has the third highest death rate per 100,000 residents in the state. Merced County is fifth and San Joaquin County is seventh, according to the Los Angeles Times tracker. Tuolumne County has the third highest death rate among the state’s 58 counties over the last seven days.
Stanislaus County has the 17th highest infection rate per 100,000 residents. Merced has the ninth highest and San Joaquin County 18th.
The county Health Services Agency reported 37,951. Stanislaus also has 326,934 negative test results and 33,117 residents who are presumed recovered from the virus.
The county’s five hospitals had 333 confirmed cases Friday, the same since the day before. The number of ICU beds available to adults went from two to one.
A stay-at-home order has been in place for a month because of tight ICU capacity in Stanislaus and 11 other counties in the San Joaquin Valley Region. The threshold to remain out of the order is 15%. Currently, the San Joaquin and Southern California regions are at 0%. The Bay Area is at 3%, Sacramento at 6.4% and Northern California, north of Sacramento up to the Oregon state line is 27.5%.
Information regarding vaccinations in Stanislaus County is on the county dashboard at http://schsa.org/coronavirus/vaccine/.
The county has begun vaccinating residents considered to be in Phase 1A, Tier 2, which includes community health workers, public health field staff and in-home supportive services and others. There were no immediate details on how many vaccinations were given and what percentage of those offered in Tier 1 were immunized.
The last update was Jan. 5.
There are three groupings of residents ion Phase 1, two in Phase 1B and one in Phase 1C,
The demographic breakdowns of the positive tests in Stanislaus County as of Thursday:
- 53.9% are female
- 46.1% male
- 7.6% are 14 years or younger
- 16.3% are ages 15 to 24
- 19.7% are 25 to 34,
- 17.6% are 35 to 44,
- 15% are 45 to 54
- 12% are 55 to 64
- 6.5% are 65 to 74
- 3.4% are 75 to 84
- 2% are 85 or older.
- Though they make up 47 percent of the population, Latinos represented 63.7 percent of the positive cases.
Geographically:
- Modesto has 13,512 positive cases
- Turlock has 5,123
- Ceres has 4,006
- Patterson has 1,940
- Riverbank has 1,844
- Oakdale has 1,156
- Newman has 822
- Waterford has 445
- Hughson has 382
- Supervisorial District 3 has 1,940
- District 5 has 1,831
- District 2 has 1,550
- District 1 has 849
- District 4 has 267
- San Joaquin County has 712 COVID-19-related deaths among 51,523 cases.
- Merced County has 279 deaths among 21,506 cases.
- Tuolumne County has 3,180 cases and 33 deaths.
- Mariposa County has 306 cases and four deaths.
As of Saturday morning, there were 2,627,569 confirmed cases in California and 29,256 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. There were 21,872,264 U.S. cases and 368,947 deaths.
COVID-19 is challenge for hospital chaplain in Modesto
Jeremy Brown, a chaplain at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto, California, is able to slow down and make sure people are getting the spiritual support they need.
Stanislaus reports first child death
Stanislaus County’s top health official said Tuesday the county received the first report of a child who died from COVID-19.
Turlock nonprofit aids grieving families
Jessica’s House in Turlock launched a dedicated support group for families grieving a loved one due to COVID-19 last fall.
Funeral homes see high demand
COVID-19 is exerting pressure on local funeral homes that are trying to keep up with requests for funeral arrangements.
Businesses, nonprofits can get grants
Stanislaus County small businesses can take advantage of a new statewide COVID-19 relief grant program that will pay out $500 million to businesses and nonprofits across California.
Biz Beat: A roll of honor from 2020
Despite the dumpster fire atop a hellscape that this annus horribilis has been, there were still reasons to celebrate. Really. No, for real. They include, almost unbelievably, many businesses that defied the odds and our ongoing pandemic by still managing to open this year.
Testing van comes to local cities
Stanislaus County residents who think they’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or might have the symptoms will have more access to testing.
Editorial: County must detail outbreaks
There is no more important time for government transparency than in the middle of a deadly pandemic. Unfortunately, Stanislaus County’s commitment to transparency in one important aspect amounts to lip service.
Vaccine allotment nears 15,000
Almost 15,000 vaccine doses have now been allocated to Stanislaus County, pushing forward an effort to vaccinate health care workers nd other priority groups against COVID-19.
Stay-home order isn’t going anywhere soon
Stanislaus County and the rest of the San Joaquin Valley region remains under a state stay-home order designed to slow a winter surge of the coronavirus pandemic.
From around the state, nation and world
After both Democrats won Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff elections, cementing Democratic control in both chambers of Congress, there could be another round of stimulus checks on the horizon.
A new study found that loss of smell affects mostly those with mild COVID-19 cases — nearly 86% — while only slightly affecting people with moderate illnesses (4.5%) and severe-to-critical cases (6.9%).
Less than two weeks after reporting the first case of a new, more contagious COVID-19 strain in the U.S., the mutated variant has spread to seven states from coast to coast, health officials say.